What’s a writer worth?

My daughter just alerted me to a big fuss over Neil Gaiman, who apparently recently received $45,000 for a speech to a Stillwater, Minnesota, library.

The speech, according to Gaiman’s own blog was about an hour long, followed by an hour’s Q&A, followed by two hours of meet-and-greet and photo ops. It was broadcast over Public Radio and was, as Gaiman put it, “the first in a series of talks by local authors in libraries outside of the Twin Cities.”

Four hours of his time. Neil Gaiman is a big deal. I mean, a BIG DEAL. He’s a good writer, a fun writer, and he’s an amazing speaker. I’ve never seen him in person, but I have watched his speeches on film, and I’ve heard him reading his own works on audiobooks, and he’s incredible. (He’s cute, too, and has an awesome British accent, though that’s obviously beside the point. )This is a prolific writer whose books have been ensconced on the NYT bestseller lists, sometimes for more than a year at a stretch. This is a writer whose Coraline was made into a film that got nominated for an Academy Award. And yet, lots of people apparently think the library shouldn’t have paid him that much money.

I’m feeling a little weird about this. On the one hand, I’m extremely, perhaps even overly, fond of libraries. I love them, and I worry about them, knowing how tight city budgets are these days. I keep my fingers crossed every day that the little local libraries will survive. I’m also as anti-government-waste as the next guy.

But listen to that word. Waste?

Would these same upset people consider it a waste to have a headliner ex-politician deliver a speech, for many times the price? Would they be shocked if they learned that some famous basketball player got a fat wallet for coming to town?

Yes, $45,000 is a lot of money, but…

The money came from something called the Legacy Fund, which, according to Gaiman’s site, is designated to help Minnesota’s parks, museums and arts.

So…what’s the fuss about, exactly? Are we offended that an artist would want to charge, and charge big, for his time? His insights? His energy? Isn’t it great for the Stillwater community to have a writer with this Wow Factor come to chat?? The suburbs are often overlooked by big names hoping to hit big cities and big crowds. Surely we want our children (and all our citizens of any age) to be excited about books, excited about literacy, excited about the library. Surely residents of any city would be proud to say their town has a robust, thriving arts community–just as much as they’d be proud to get a new basketball stadium.

On his blog, Gaiman explains that when he gets money “like this,” he gives it back out again to charities. Nice. And yet…it makes me uncomfortable to see that, as if he feels the need to answer to us about how he spends the money he earns, as if he’s committed some sin by taking it.

He works, and obviously works hard. He creates books people love. Passionately. He makes big money writing, and it costs him to take the afternoon off. If he’s going to do so, he wants to be paid for it. Is that so weird? Should he have to do penance for being successful by giving his money away?

The whole thing worries me. Do people still expect their artists to be lean and hungry, creating beauty out of pure passion and an altruistic desire to improve the world?